AMANDA BLAIR, PRACTICE MANAGER, McKINNEY, TEXAS

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care.

Amanda Blair grew up wanting to be a cop like her grandfather. The idea of helping people and righting wrongs appealed to her nature. That dream eventually came true – she did spend time in law enforcement – but ended up transferring those skills to the healthcare field.

As the practice manager of Physician Partners of America – McKinney, TX clinic, Blair pulls together many skills to keep the practice running smoothly. She keeps the schedule moving, supervises the staff, assists the practice physician, Dr. Edrick Lopez, and – her favorite part – helps people get out of chronic pain.

“I find it so rewarding,” she says. “We have one patient who lived in pain for 20 years. Dr. Lopez completed the spinal cord stimulator procedure for him, and he is now pain-free. Seeing people with chronic pain like that drastically improve is so gratifying to me.”

Blair became the PPOA McKinney practice manager in February 2019 with a background in law enforcement and management, but has quickly woven herself into the PPOA culture and proven a more than capable healthcare leader.

“She is the true definition of a practice leader and is very well-respected by her physician and APP in the practice,” says her supervisor, Rhonda Boysen, regional director of operations – Texas. “She has become a strong support to her operations manager and is always open and willing to help others. Her clinic has become our ‘go-to’ clinic for new hire training. We are very proud to have Amanda as the leader of our McKinney practice with Dr. Lopez.”

Embracing challenges is second nature to Amanda Blair. Growing up in the Central California town of Bass Lake near Yosemite National Park, she grew up skiing, hiking, and horseback riding. Graduating from high school at 16, she put herself through college by training horses. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Criminology at California State University – Fresno, she moved to Texas with her sister and took a job as a fraud analyst for a banking firm.

“I loved it but I felt I wasn’t that involved in affecting people’s lives on a day-to-day basis and being a positive influence in the way I’d hoped,” she says. She was promoted to a management position in financial risk mitigation for a mortgage company, and while she was grateful for the management experience, she still wasn’t fulfilled.

“I did some research and decided to go back to school and get my degree in nursing,” Blair says. She is currently working toward her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Texas Women’s University, and one day aims to be a nurse practitioner. For now, combining her leadership skills and desire to help others is a perfect fit.

She credits her team for the clinic’s success with helping patients. “It’s amazing to be a part of the practice here. We have great team of staff and providers,” Blair says. “I couldn’t be luckier to have the dedicated staff I do. They’re all so helpful and committed to exceptional patient care. It’s rewarding to be part of such a great team.”

Her “team” at home is equally rewarding. She and her husband have a 17-month-old son. Although she hasn’t ridden horseback in a while, Blair enjoys staying active by running, including marathons and triathlons. Work, too, gives her energy.

“There are so many moving pieces. There’s never a dull moment. I wear a lot of hats and every day is different,” she says. “It can be challenging to juggle everything, but I love challenges.”